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University students recreate campuses in Minecraft to host graduations | TribLIVE.com
Technology

University students recreate campuses in Minecraft to host graduations

Neil Linderman
Neil Linderman
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AP
Lydia Winters shows off Microsoft’s “Minecraft” built specifically for HoloLens during a live demo June 15, 2015, at the Xbox E3 2015 briefing ahead of the Electronic Entertainment Expo at the University of Southern California’s Galen Center in Los Angeles.

The notion of a video game enthusiast as a sweaty, jobless loser alone in his mother’s basement goes back as far as video games, themselves.

Not only do gamers come in all shapes, sizes, ages, genders and income brackets, but the concept of players as antisocial is equally outmoded.

Many games encourage socialization, competition and collaboration. For some players, that may even be the main draw.

In fact, as the covid-19 pandemic limits social interactions worldwide — spoiling graduations, sporting events and other activities — college students at several universities are turning to a game as a replacement for some of what has been lost.

The Electronic Gaming Society at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York went so far as to recreate the RIT campus in the game “Minecraft” and used it to host a virtual commencement ceremony.

“What started as a small group of club members quickly turned into a project with involvement from over 400 students, alumni, faculty, staff and family members,” the group says in a preview of the project posted to YouTube.

The campus was recreated at a 2:1 scale, a section at a time.

“This project is more than just a way to pass the time,” the society says. “It has become a virtual gathering place for students to collaborate and potentially host in-person events that may have been canceled or postponed, including the graduationg commencement ceremony for the Class of 2020.”

“In preparation for the ceremony,” the club says, “builders have begun to decorate the already-constructed fieldhouse, where most commencement exercises take place, to include a stage, chairs, decorations and a screenshot photobooth.”

Even the university’s president, Dr. David C. Munson, was recreated. Club members put his image onto an iron golem, and he is seen in the video passing out a diploma.

According to the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, the Munson golem was set to hand out diplomas during the ceremony Friday.

A congratulatory message and fireworks were to accompany each student’s catching of his or her diploma, according to the newspaper. Participants were allowed to offer a few words and to have photos of their characters, in cap and gown, with RIT’s tiger mascot.

Students at Cal Berkeley hosted a similar event on the Minecraft “Blockeley University” campus. Theirs was to be followed by a virtual music festival featuring 40 artists over two days, according to the Berkeley News.

The event was taking donations to help revive restaurant jobs and provide meals to health care workers, the report said.

According to Business Insider, those efforts were preceded by a group of eight Japanese elementary school students who held a Minecraft commencement ceremony after schools closed there in February.

Neil Linderman is a Tribune-Review copy editor. You can contact Neil at nlinderman@triblive.com.

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